Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE: RT) announced today that Sandy Beall, its
Founder, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President,
has announced his intention to step down from management and the Board.
A committee of the Board has been formed to oversee the succession
process and to identify the next chief executive to lead the Company
into the future. The committee plans to retain an executive search firm
and begin a search process immediately. Beall will continue to serve as
Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President until the completion of the
selection process and a successor is named.

This year will complete the Company’s 40th fiscal year. Beall
opened the first Ruby Tuesday restaurant in 1972 in Knoxville, Tennessee
near the campus of the University of Tennessee. The concept subsequently
grew to 16 restaurants at which time it was acquired by Morrison
Restaurants, Inc. During the following years, the chain grew to over 300
restaurants. In a spin-off transaction that occurred in 1996, Morrison
Restaurants changed its name to Ruby Tuesday, Inc., and today, under
Beall’s leadership, the Company owns and operates 740 Ruby Tuesday
restaurants and franchises 85 restaurants. The Company also owns and
operates the fast-casual dining concept Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and the
casual dining concept Marlin & Ray’s. The Company currently employs over
30,000 team members.

“After 40 years with Ruby Tuesday, I look forward to taking some time
off and to pursuing personal ventures,” said Sandy Beall. “We have plans
in place to strengthen the Ruby Tuesday brand, grow our emerging brands,
and have a capital structure that allows our team to execute on our
plans to create value for our shareholders. It has been my honor and
pleasure to lead this great brand and team over the past 40 years and it
has been a wonderful experience in so many ways. I look forward to
working with the Board to ensure a smooth transition.”

“All of us at Ruby Tuesday are extremely grateful to Sandy for his many
years of energetic and creative leadership which has created the company
we are today, and we all wish him well,” said James Haslam, Lead
Director of the Board. “The Board looks forward to embarking on the
process of identifying an experienced and capable new chief executive to
lead Ruby Tuesday and its senior executive team.”

Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains various forward-looking statements, which
represent our expectations or beliefs concerning future events,
including one or more of the following: future financial performance and
restaurant growth (both Company-owned and franchised), future capital
expenditures, future borrowings and repayments of debt, availability of
debt financing on terms attractive to the Company, payment of dividends,
stock repurchases, restaurant acquisitions, and conversions of
Company-owned restaurants to other dining concepts. We caution the
reader that a number of important factors and uncertainties could,
individually or in the aggregate, cause our actual results to differ
materially from those included in the forward-looking statements (such
statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to cost
savings that we estimate may result from any programs we implement, our
estimates of future capital spending and free cash flow, and our targets
for annual growth in same-restaurant sales and average annual sales per
restaurant), including, without limitation, the following: general
economic conditions; changes in promotional, couponing and advertising
strategies; changes in our guests’ disposable income; consumer spending
trends and habits; increased competition in the restaurant market; laws
and regulations affecting labor and employee benefit costs, including
further potential increases in state and federally mandated minimum
wages, and healthcare reform; guests’ acceptance of changes in menu
items; guests’ acceptance of our development prototypes, remodeled
restaurants, and conversion strategy; mall-traffic trends; changes in
the availability and cost of capital; weather conditions in the regions
in which Company-owned and franchised restaurants are operated; costs
and availability of food and beverage inventory; our ability to attract
and retain qualified managers, franchisees and team members; impact of
adoption of new accounting standards; impact of food-borne illnesses
resulting from an outbreak at either Ruby Tuesday or other restaurant
concepts; our ability to successfully integrate acquired companies; our
ability to complete our planned sale-leaseback transactions; effects of
actual or threatened future terrorist attacks in the United States; and
significant fluctuations in energy prices.